The Tale of Two Brothers
by bigfatcarp93 mk2
Summary: One shot: Qrow tells the full, fairytale version of "The Tale of Two Brothers."


*hic* Alright, alright, I give in. One more, and then it's bedtime, alright?

Okay, let's see... which one haven't I... oh, yeah, that'll work. This one's called "The Tale of Two Brothers."

So... once upon a time - I feel like you're turning that into my new catchphrase - but once upon a time, there were two brothers of great, some would say godlike, power. The older brother, he loved to use his power to bring light and life into the world. Heck, let's say that creating the whole affair in the first place was his idea. He spun the threads that flowed into the oceans, and pounded the sky down until it became the earth below our feet.

But the younger brother wasn't the same. He was a being of envy, and anger, and solitude. He countered his older brother's creations. You see, when the sun rose over Remnant, the older brother would wake, and spend the day raising mountains and digging out rivers, and summoning wind and water to cool the heat of time. But when the sun went down, and the cold night fell, the older brother would sleep, and the younger one would awaken and scheme.

He countered all of his sibling's creations: one day, the brother created the oceans and tides, so that night, the younger one created storms and tsunamis. Huh? Oh, it's like a... a big wave, a huge one that can destroy things. Yeah. Oh, no no, you're safe! No, not out here, the ocean's... it's too shallow, kid, don't worry. Listen, there's not going to be a tsunami, okay? You're safe. Yes, Ruby's safe too. And your mom and dad. I promise, alright?

You want me to keep going yet? Alright. So anyway, like I said, every night, the younger brother would counter the things his older brother created with destruction. For the oceans, storms and... uh... storms. For the rocks and mountains, lava and volcanos. For the wind, hurricanes. Oh, the older brother knew what was going on; it was frustrating, but there was nothing he could do about it without attacking his brother.

And, well... siblings... shouldn't fight.

Ahem... anyway, the older brother focused on making new creations. He would create life, lush and beautiful. And as always, whatever he made, his brother set out to destroy. Trees? Termites. Herds? Lions. Forests? Drought. On and on and on. Both brothers were angry, and frustrated, so they just worked harder and harder. Healthier swamps countered by worse famines, and stronger herbivores met with smarter carnivores. Oh, um... sorry, a herbivore's an animal that eats grass and stuff, like a cow, and a carnivore's one that eats other animals, like a wolf or a... hah, yeah, like a dragon. Sure. Good example, kid.

But the point is, every passing day the world got more and more complicated and full of more and more light and darkness, until one day, things reached the tipping point.

You see, the older brother had created grasslands. Big, dry ones, like the savannah. Beautiful, golden grass as far as the eye could see. So, naturally, when night fell, it came to the younger brother to create something to destroy it, as he had always done. So he saw how dry the grass was, and he created something that could take advantage of that, like the opposite of water. He rubbed his hands together to create a spark and blew it into the fields, and just like that, the first fire was born.

The next morning, the older brother found that his plains were nothing but ash... and he laughed, because his brother had fallen into his trap. The ash that the fire had left behind was full of life; it would cause the grassland to sprout anew, healthier than ever before.

This infuriated the younger brother; night after night he conjured more fire, burning the woods and the grasslands and anything else he could... but it would always just grow back fresh and strong.

And then... the older brother made a mistake.

An eclipse came. The moon blocked out the sun and there was a time that was both day and night, which meant that the two brothers could meet and speak to each other. Now, whenever this happened in the past, they would set their differences aside and spend time enjoying each other's company, making games out of their creations and laughing together in peace. But this time? The older brother got cocky. He mocked his younger sibling, threw it back in his face that he had finally won, and that life would win out forever. His pride had gotten the better of him

By the end of the eclipse, the younger brother was so angry that he wanted to do something truly unforgiveable, something that his older brother would never forget. So he summoned all of the twisted emotions he had inside.

Fear.

Greed.

Hatred.

Anger.

Loneliness.

He gathered it all up into an egg, and he threw that egg into the world, where it hatched into a horrible, blackened slime that oozed into canyons and caves. And from that slime crawled creatures made of pure darkness, evil and destructive to their core.

The Creatures of Grimm had come into being.

The Grimm were a devastating force. They killed and burned, and laid waste to everything in their path; and worse, they would eat what they killed, not for food, but simply to destroy it for good, so that no more life could come from it. When the sun rose and the older brother looked down at what had happened, he couldn't believe his eyes. His brother had finally created the ultimate answer to his light: pure darkness given form.

The older brother realized that all of this had been his fault, if hadn't been such an arrogant son of a bitch, he could - aaaahhh... I mean... hey, do your uncle a favor and don't tell your parents I said that, okay? Anywho... if he hadn't been... such a meanie... none of this would have happened. So, he made a decision about what to do.

He didn't create anything for a while. You see, he wanted to attract his brother's attention. He was worried, that after the things that had been said at the last eclipse, the younger one wouldn't come to the next one, so by creating nothing for some time, he made him curious. Sure enough, when the next eclipse rolled around, the younger brother came to the meeting, wanting to find out what his kin had to say.

The older brother apologized, and made the point that their conflict had gone too far: they would never prove which of them was right if they kept going back and forth like this.

For the first time, the younger brother agreed.

And so, the two decided on one final creation, meant to settle their argument once and for all. This creation would have the power to create and destroy, and choose between the two paths. In this new species, every single member would have at least a little light and a little darkness inside them, in the form of emotions: negative ones, like the younger brother's anger and resentment, and positive ones, like the older brother's compassion and love. Even pride, the emotion that both of them shared, which could be used for creation and destruction equally.

And finally, this new being would have the gift of knowledge: it would be curious enough to learn about the world, and smart enough to comprehend what it learned.

And so, mankind was created. People. Human beings. Dropped into the world with the gifts and creation, destruction, choice and knowledge, and left to their own devices. We are the final arbiters of the brother's age-old debate. If we destroy ourselves, then the younger one was right all along, but if we thrive and flourish forever, and eliminate the Grimm, then the older one was right.

And so, that's the choice every person faces: to side with the fragments of each brother inside us all. Er... that's the moral of the story, anyway.

Sheesh, it's getting late... time for sleep, kiddo. No, no more, look at your sister, she's been out like a light for half an hour. Tomorrow, alright?

And here's one last question to fill your dreams, firecracker. I told you a lot of stories tonight, so you tell me:

Which one is _your_ favorite fairytale?


End file.
